Thank Heaven I have escaped from St Louis; during the time that I
remained in that city, I was, day and night, so melting away, that I
expected, like some of the immortal half-breeds of Jupiter, to become a
tributary stream to the Mississippi.
As you descend the river the land through which it flows becomes more
level and flat, while the size of the forest trees increases; the log
houses of the squatters, erected on the banks under their trunks,
appear, in contrast with their size, more like dog-kennels than the
habitations of men. The lianes, or creeping plants, now become
plentiful, and embrace almost every tree, rising often to the height of
fifty or sixty feet, and encircling them with the apparent force of the
boa-constrictor. Most of them are poisonous; indeed, it is from these
creeping parasites that the Indians, both in North and South America,
obtain the most deadly venom. Strange that these plants, in their
appearances and their habits so similar to the serpent tribe, should be
endowed with the same peculiar attributes, and thus become their
parallels in the vegetable kingdom--each carrying sudden death in their
respective juices. I hate the Mississippi, and as I look down upon its
wild and filthy waters, boiling and eddying, and reflect how uncertain
is travelling in this region of high-pressure, and disregard of social
rights, I cannot help feeling a disgust at the idea of perishing in such
a vile sewer, to be buried in mud, and perhaps to be rooted out again by
some pig-nosed alligator.
Right glad was I when we turned into the stream of the Ohio, and I found
myself on its purer waters. The Ohio is a splendid river, running
westward from the chain of Alleghany mountains into the Mississippi,
dividing the States of Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio on its northern bank
from Kentucky, and Virginia on its south; the northern being free, and
the southern slave States. We stopped at the month of the Cumberland
river, where we took in passengers. Among others were a slave-dealer
and a runaway negro whom he had captured. He was secured by a heavy
chain, and followed his master, who, as soon as he arrived on the upper
deck, made him fast with a large padlock to one of the stancheons.
Here he remained looking wistfully at the northern shore, where every
one was free, but occasionally glancing his eye on the southern, which
had condemned him to toil for others. I had never seen a slave-dealer,
and scrutinised this one severely. His most remarkable feature was his
eye; it was large but not projecting, clear as crystal, and eternally in
motion. I could not help imagining, as he turned it right and left from
one to the other of the passengers, that he was calculating what price
he could obtain for them in the market. The negro had run away about
seven months before, and not having a pass, he had been secured in gaol
until the return of his master, who had been on a journey with a string
of slaves, to the State of Arkansas: he was about to be sold to pay
expenses, when his master saw the advertisement and claimed him. As may
be supposed, a strong feeling exists on the opposite shores of the river
as to slavery and freedom. The Abolitionists used to assist the slaves
to escape, and send them off to Canada; even now many do escape; but
this has been rendered more difficult by a system which has latterly
been put in practice by a set of miscreants living on the free side of
the river. These would go to the slave states opposite, and persuade
the negroes to run away, promising to conceal them until they could send
them off to Canada; for a free state is bound to give up a slave when
claimed. Instead of sending them away, they would wait until the reward
was offered by the masters for the apprehension of the slaves, and then
return them, receiving their infamous guerdon. The slaves, aware of
this practice, now seldom attempt to escape.
Louisville is the largest city in Kentucky; the country about is very
rich, and every thing vegetable springs up with a luxuriance which is
surprising. It is situated at the falls of the Ohio, which are only
navigable during the freshets; there is no river in America which has
such a rise and fall as the Ohio, sometimes rising to sixty feet in the
spring; but this is very rare, the general average being about forty
feet. The French named it La Belle Riviere: it is a very grand stream,
running through hills covered with fine timber and underwood; but a very
small portion is as yet cleared by the settlers. At the time that I was
at Louisville the water was lower than it had been remembered for years,
and you could walk for miles over the bed of the river, a calcareous
deposit full of interesting fossils; but the mineralogist and geologist
have as much to perform in America as the agriculturist.
Arrived at Cincinnati. How rapid has been the advance of this western
country. In 1803, deer-skin at the value of forty cents per pound, were
a legal tender; and if offered instead of money could not be refused--
even by a lawyer. Not fifty years ago, the woods which towered where
Cincinnati is now built, resounded only to the cry of the wild animals
of the forest, or the rifle of the Shawnee Indian; now Cincinnati
contains a population of 40,000 inhabitants. It is a beautiful, well
built, clean town, reminding you more of Philadelphia than any other
city in the Union. Situated on a hill on the banks of the Ohio, it is
surrounded by a circular phalanx of other hills; so that look up and
down the streets, whichever way you will, your eye reposes upon verdure
and forest trees in the distance. The streets have a row of trees on
each side, near the curb-stone; and most of the houses have a small
frontage, filled with luxuriant flowering shrubs, of which the Althea
Frutex is the most abundant. It is, properly speaking, a Yankee city,
the majority of its inhabitants coming from the East; but they have
intermarried, and blended with the Kentuckians of the opposite shore, a
circumstance which is advantageous to the character of both.
There are, however, a large number of Dutch and German settlers here;
they say 10,000. They are not much liked by the Americans but have
great influence, as may be conceived when it is stated that, when a
motion was brought forward, in the Municipal Court, for the city
regulations to be printed in German as well as English, it was lost by
one vote only.
I was told a singular fact, which will prove how rapidly the value of
land rises in this country as it becomes peopled. Fifty-six years ago,
the major part of the land upon which the city of Cincinnati stands, and
which is now worth many millions of dollars, was _swapped_ away by the
owner of it for a pony!! The man who made this unfortunate bargain is
now alive, and living in or near Cincinnati.
Cincinnati is the pork-shop of the Union; and in the autumnal, and early
winter months, the way they kill pigs here is, to use a Yankee phrase,
_quite a caution_. Almost all the hogs fed in the oak forests of Ohio,
Kentucky, and Western Virginia, are driven into this city, and some
establishments kill as many as fifteen hundred a day; at least so I am
told. They are despatched in a way quite surprising; and a pig is
killed upon the same principle as a pin is made,--by division, or, more
properly speaking, by combination of labour. The hogs confined in a
large pen are driven into a smaller one; one man knocks them on the head
with a sledge hammer, and then cuts their throats; two more pull away
the carcase, when it is raised by two others, who tumble it into a tub
of scalding water. His bristles are removed in about a minute and a
half by another party; when the next duty is to fix a stretcher between
his legs. It is then hoisted up by two other people, cut open, and
disembowelled; and in three minutes and a half from the time that the
hog was grunting in his obesity, he has only to get cold before he is
again packed up, and reunited in a barrel to travel all over the world.
By the by, we laugh at the notion of pork and molasses. In the first
place, the American pork is far superior to any that we ever have salted
down; and, in the next, it eats uncommonly well with molasses. I have
tasted it, and "_it is a fact_." After all, why should we eat currant
jelly with venison, and not allow the Americans the humble imitation of
pork and molasses?
Mrs Trollope's bazaar raises its head in a very imposing manner: it is
composed of many varieties of architecture; but I think the order under
which it must be classed is the _preposterous_. They call it Trollope's
folly; and it is remarkable how a shrewd woman like Mrs Trollope should
have committed such an error. A bazaar like an English bazaar is only
to be supported in a city which has arrived at the acme of luxury; where
there are hundreds of people willing to be employed for a trifle;
hundreds who will work at trifles, for want of better employment; and
thousands who will spend money on trifles, merely to pass away their
time. Now, in America, in the first place, there is no one who makes
trifles; no one who will devote their time, as sellers of the articles
unless well compensated; and no one who will be induced, either by
fashion or idleness, to give a halfpenny more for a thing than it is
worth. In consequence, nothing was sent to Mrs Trollope's bazaar. She
had to furnish it from the shops, and had to pay very high salaries to
the young women who attended; and the people of Cincinnati, aware that
the same articles were to be purchased at the stores for less money,
preferred going to the stores. No wonder then that it was a failure.
It is now used as a dancing academy, and occasionally as an
assembly-room.
Whatever the society of Cincinnati may have been at the time that Mrs
Trollope resided there, I cannot pretend to say; probably some change
may have taken place in it; but at present it is as good as any in the
Union, and infinitely more agreeable than in some other cities, as in it
there is a mixture of the southern frankness of character. A lady, who
had long resided at Cincinnati, told me that they were not angry with
Mrs Trollope for having described the society which she saw, but for
having asserted that that was the best society; and she further
remarked,--"It is fair to us that it should be understood that when Mrs
Trollope came here, she was quite unknown, except inasmuch as that she
was a married woman, travelling without her husband. In a small
society, as ours was, it was not surprising, therefore, that we should
be cautious about receiving a lady who, in our opinion was offending
against _les bienseances_. Observe, _we do not accuse Mrs Trollope of
any impropriety_; but you must be aware how necessary it is, in this
country, to be regardful of appearances, and how afraid every one is of
their neighbour. Mrs Trollope then took a cottage on the hill, and
used to come down to the city to market, and attend to the erection of
her bazaar. I have now told you all that we know about her, and the
reason why she did not receive those attentions, the omission of which
caused her indignation." I think it but fair that the lady's
explanation should be given, as Mrs Trollope is considered to have been
very severe and very unjust by the inhabitants of Cincinnati.
The fact is, that Mrs Trollope's representation of the manners and
custom of Cincinnati, at the period when she wrote, was probably more
correct than the present inhabitants of the city will allow: that it
would be a libel upon the Cincinnatians of the present day is certain;
whether it was one at the time she wrote, and the city was,
comparatively speaking, in its infancy, is quite another affair.
However, one thing is certain, which is, that the Americans have quite
forgiven Mrs Trollope, and if she were again to cross the water, I
think she would be well received. Her book made them laugh, though at
their own expense; and the Americans, although appearances are certainly
very much against it, are really, at the bottom, a very good tempered
people.
The heat has been this year very remarkable all over the Western
country, and the drought equally uncommon, the thermometer standing from
100 degrees to 106 degrees, in the shade, every where from St Peters to
New Orleans. It is very dangerous to drink iced water, and many have
died from yielding to the temptation. One young man came into the bar
of the hotel where I resided, drank a glass of water, and fell down dead
at the porch. This reminds me of an ingenious plan put in practice by a
fellow who had drunk every cent out of his pocket, and was as thirsty as
ever. The best remedy, in case of a person being taken ill from
drinking cold water, is to pour brandy down his throat immediately.
Aware of this, the fellow used to go to one of the pumps, pump away, and
pretend to drink water in large quantities; he would then fall down by
the pump, as if he had been taken suddenly ill; out would run people
from every house, with brandy, and pour it down his throat till even he
had had enough; he would then pretend gradually to recover, thank them
for their kindness, and walk away. When he required another dose, he
would perform the same farce at another pump; and this he continued to
do for some time, before his trick was discovered.
I had two good specimens of democracy during my stay in this city. I
sent for a tailor to take my measure for a coat, and he returned for
answer, that such a proceeding was not _republican_, and that I must _go
to him_.
A young lady, with whom I was acquainted, was married during the time I
was there, and the marriage-party went a short tour. On their return,
when but a few miles from the city, they ordered the driver of the
carriage to put his horses to, that they might proceed; he replied that
he would take them no further. On inquiring the cause of his refusal,
he said that he had not been treated as a gentleman; that they had had
private meals every day, and had not asked him to the table; that they
had used him very ill, and that he would drive no more. Things appear
to be fast verging to the year 1920, or thereabouts, as described by
Theodore Hook. A duchess wishing for a drive, the old mare sends an
answer from the stable, that "She'll be d---d if she'll go out today."
Left Cincinnati, in a very small steam-boat, for Guyandotte, on my way
to the Virginia Springs. I have often heard the expression of "Hell
afloat" applied to very uncomfortable ships in the service, but this
metaphor ought to have been reserved for a small high-pressure steamboat
in the summer months in America; the sun darting his fierce rays down
upon the roof above you, which is only half-inch plank, and rendering it
so hot that you quickly remove your hand if, by chance, you put it
there; the deck beneath your feet so heated by the furnaces below that
you cannot walk with slippers; you are panting and exhausted between
these two fires, without a breath of air to cool your forehead. Go
forward, and the chimneys radiate a heat which is even more intolerable.
Go--but there is no where to go, except overboard, and then you lose
your passage. It is, really, a fiery furnace, and, day or night, it is
in vain to seek a cool retreat. As we proceeded up the river, things
became worse. We had not proceeded more than twenty miles, when a
larger steamboat, which had started an hour before us, was discovered
aground on a bar, which, from the low state of the river, she could not
pass. After a parley between the captains, we went alongside and took
out all her passengers, amounting to upward of a hundred, being more
than we were on board of our own vessel. But they behaved like pirates,
and treated us just as if we had been a captured vessel. Dinner was
just ready; they sat down and took possession of it, leaving us to wait
till the table was replenished. A young Englishman had just taken his
seat by me, when a very queer-looking man came up to him and begged that
he would give up his place to a _lady_. Aware of the custom of the
country, he immediately resigned his seat, and went to look for another.
When the lady took her seat by me I involuntarily drew my chair to a
more respectful distance, there being something so particularly
uninviting in her ladyship's appearance. On our arrival at Maysville,
this lady, with her gentleman, told the captain that they were sorry
they had not a cent wherewith to defray the expenses of their passage.
Their luggage had been landed before this declaration was made, but it
was immediately ordered on board again by the captain; and as, of
course, they would not part with their goods and chattels, they remained
on board of the boat. The captain took them to the river about twenty
miles further, and then landed them on the bank, with their luggage, to
find their way back to Maysville how they could. This is the usual
punishment for such mal-practices; but, after all, it is only the
punishment of delay, as they would hail the first boat which came down
the river, make out a piteous tale of ill-treatment, be received on
board, and landed at their destination.
This reminds me of a clever trick played by a Yankee pedlar upon one of
the captains of the steamboats running from New York to Albany on the
Hudson river. The Yankee was fully aware of this custom of putting
people on shore who attempted to gain a passage for nothing, and his
destination was to a place called Poughkeepsie, about halfway between
New York and Albany. He, therefore, waited very quietly until he was
within a mile or two of Poughkeepsie, and then went up to the
captain.--"Well, now, Captain, I like to do things on the square, that's
a fact;--I might have said nothing to you, and run up all the way to
Albany--and to Albany I must go on most particular business--that's a
fact; but I thought it more honourable-like to tell you at once--I
hav'nt got a cent in my pocket; I've been unfortunate; but, by the
'tarnal I'll pay you my passage-money as soon as I get it. You see I
tell you now, that you may'nt say that I cheat you; for pay you I will
as soon as I can, that's a fact." The captain, indignant, as usual, at
being tricked, called him certain names, swore a small quantity, and as
soon as he arrived at Poughkeepsie, as a punishment put him ashore at
the very place the keen Yankee wished to be landed at.
The Ohio river becomes much more rapid as you ascend. Abreast of
Guyandotte, where we landed, the current was so strong that it was very
difficult for men to wade across it, and the steamboats running against
the stream could not gain more than a mile in the course of half an
hour.
On board of this steamboat was a negro woman, very neatly dressed, with
a very good-looking negro child, about nine months old, in her arms. It
was of the darkest ebony in colour, and its dress rather surprised me.
It was a chali frock, of a neat fawn coloured pattern, with fine muslin
trousers edged with Valenciennes lace at the bottom; and very pretty did
its little tiny black feet look, relieved by these expensive
unnecessaries. I did not inquire who the young gentleman was; but I
thought what pleasure the sight of him would have given Miss Martineau,
who, as I have before observed, exclaims, "Happy is the country where
factory-girls carry parasols, and pig-drivers wear spectacles." How
much more happy must be that country where a little black boy, of nine
months old, wears Valenciennes lace at the bottom of his trousers! It
is, however a question of figures, and may be solved, not by the rule of
three, but by the rule of five, which follows it in the arithmetic-book.
+===============+================+==================+
YIf a pig-driverYproduces so muchYa little black boyY
+---------------+----------------+------------------+
Ywith spectaclesYhappiness, YValenciennes lace.Y
+===============+================+==================+